The Baby Job
by amy1oM-InnitMarvelous
Summary: The night Nate and Sophie spend together had consequences. Spoilers for "The San Lorenzo Job", FINISHED on March. 25th!
1. Chapter 1

**Spoilers: **Up to the Season 3 finale 'The San Lorenzo Job' | **Pairing(s):** Nate/Sophie

**Summary: **The night Nate and Sophie spend together had consequences. How will Sophie tell Nate? How will Nate cope with being a father again? And how will it affect the team? Written for Leverageland's "Create an episode" and "Be the Writer" challenges.

0o0

"Children are wonderful aren't they?" Sophie said, dreamily. "They're so innocent, so much everything we're not."

Nate sipped his drink. "I suppose." His eyes drifted over to where the rest of their _family_ was watching Inception in his living room.

"Nate?"

"Hmm?"

"Nate, do you... I mean have you ever thought about having more children?"

He gestured towards Hardison and Eliot who were locked in a war of words while Parker ignored them, continued watching the movie. "I'd say we have children. Three of them." By now the "kids" had progressed to a full blown popcorn toss. "I rest my case."

Sophie smiled, and her hand drifted towards her midsection. "They're not exactly what mean even if they all act like it sometimes."

"Sophie, what are you saying, _exactly_?" Nate asked.

"Do you remember the night we spent together in San Lorenzo after we'd taken Moreau down?" At his nod she went on. "I'm asking you how you feel about children because I, uh, you're going to be a father again."

Nate didn't say another word to her, just headed towards the door and the bar downstairs. Sophie was too stunned to react right away and didn't until Hardison noticed Nate was leaving. She started after him, telling them to keep on watching the movie.

She found Nate pretty much as she expected to find him, diving head first into a bottle of whiskey, and she managed to pull it away before he could refill his glass. However the problem wasn't solved as he just reached for another bottle. "Nate, we need to talk."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"There's plenty to talk about, and I need you to be not completely sozzled for this!" she replied, pulling away the second bottle.

He reached for a third bottle. "Not going to happen. Not after you told me something like that!"

Sophie didn't stop him this time. "All right then. You get tonight to do whatever you think you need to do to handle this but tomorrow, _tomorrow_ we talk about how we'll deal with this for real, Nate." She started towards the front door, writing a text as she walked out. _Night everyone. Im going home XO – S_.

"Okay, guys, listen up. There's something we need to tell you." The team was relaxing at McRory's after successfully winding up another job when Nate called them over to where he and Sophie had been talking. The "kids" sat down at the bar, and waited for either Nate or Sophie to speak but she wasn't looking at any of them and Nate was too busy looking at Sophie.

Finally Eliot lost patience. "So what's going on?"

Nate took his off Sophie, had opened his mouth to reply when Sophie beat him to the punch.

"I'm pregnant!" she blurted.

Hardison's eyes went mega wide, while Parker looked a little puzzled, and Eliot just glared... in Nate's direction.

The hacker recovered his ability to speech first. "Yo, what did you say? Cuz, I thought I heard you say you were pregnant."

"That's because she _did_ say that, you idiot!" Eliot growled, smacking the back of Hardison's head while keeping his eyes on Nate.

"Hey, man, what was that for?" Hardison protested, rubbing his head.

Meanwhile, Parker's face lit up like a child's on Christmas morning, "So is it a boy or girl?"

Sophie's smile was teary when she answered. "I don't know yet, Parker. It's too early to tell." The tears became harder to fight when the young woman flew around the bar to hug Sophie.

Hardison still rubbing his head asked, "Okay, not to be indelicate or anything but who's the baby's daddy?"

"Nate is."

All eyes turned to Eliot.

"Eliot, man, what are you saying?"

"You heard me. The baby's father is Nate."

"Eliot, have you lost it, man?" Hardison asked, stepping out of reach. "Cuz, ain't no way Nate's the daddy!"

"So you'd rather think believe Sophie has been sleeping around?" Eliot retorted.

"Eliot!" Nate finally spoke. "That's enough! He's right, Hardison. The baby... Sophie's baby is mine too." With Hardison temporarily dumbfounded again Nate asked Eliot, "How did you know?"

Eliot shrugged. "Wasn't too hard to figure out with the way you two disappeared in San Lorenzo."

"Not to mention the way y'all been dancing around each other for _three_ years."

"So are you going to get married now?" Parker asked suddenly.

"Parker, I don't think-"

Sophie interrupted. "Actually, Parker, we haven't really talked about that yet." She shot Nate a look.

"Yo again, trying to not be insensitive here, but are we going to be taking on any new clients during the next 9 months? I mean Sophie having a baby is happy news and all but it won't be safe for her to grifting the kind of people we go after, will it?"

"I'll still be able to work for awhile, Hardison, and when I need to take time off for the baby I'll call Tara, ask her to fill in for me."

"Sounds like everything's settled then." Eliot said.

"Yeah, and I say this calls for a celebration, cuz our little family's growing!"

"I know it's a little late for dinner but, Eliot, would you mind?" Sophie asked.

"As long as Nate doesn't mind me messing up his kitchen."

"Go ahead."

Parker was still hanging onto Sophie as they started upstairs while Hardison flanked her other side. It was only when they reached the stairs they all realized neither Nate or Eliot were following.

"Y'all coming?"

"Yeah, in a minute."

"Nate?"

"Go on up."

Puzzled looked were shot their way but once they were gone Nate asked, "Got something you wanted to say, Eliot?"

Eliot nodded. "Yeah, just one thing. Don't you **dare** hurt her."

"What does that mean?"

"You know what it means."

"No, I don't."

"You, the four of you, are the closest thing I have to having a real family, which is why I fight so hard to protect all of you from the scum we deal with. As along as I'm breathing, I'm not going to stand by while the people I care about are hurt, whether it's by scum or from within the family."

"All I can say in response to that is I will try to not hurt Sophie but I can't guarantee I'll never screw up or won't ever make her cry again."

"Try hard, Nate, because I swear if you hurt her I'll-"

Nate touched his shoulder. "I know, Eliot. I know."

Sophie's voice interrupted them. "Nate, Eliot? Are you guys coming up anytime soon? I'm starving!"

With one last exchange of nods, Nate replied. "We're coming."


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: **This is Sophie and Nate's real, missing conversation about the consequences of their night together in San Lorenzo, and should be stuck in between where Sophie gave Nate the news and when they told the team about her pregnancy.

This part won't have the actual conversation between them per say but it is something I hope y'all will enjoy!

0o0

"_All right then. You get tonight to do whatever you think you need to do to handle this but tomorrow, tomorrow we talk about how we'll deal with this for real, Nate." _

0o0

The popcorn fight had ceased a few minutes ago, and they had resumed watching the movie when Hardison felt his phone vibrating from the incoming text. "Aww, man!"

"What?"

"Check your phones."

Eliot reached for his phone, and found an empty pocket. "Parker!"

She had flipped his phone open, and was squinting at the screen. "You're weird." She moved closer to Hardison. "Look at this!"

"I'm warning you two..."

Hardison took the phone, looked briefly at the screen, and then tossed it to Eliot. '"Nevermind what's on the screen... although seriously, man Eliot, I never would've taken you as a puppies kind of guy."

Ignoring him, Eliot read the text. "So Sophie went home. Big deal."

Before the hacker could say another word, Nate entered his apartment again walking past them, making no attempt to conceal neither the half-empty glass in one hand, nor the bottle of liquor that he carried in the other. He went straight upstairs to his bedroom, and the door was slammed shut behind him.

"Do you think they had a fight?" Parker asked.

To Be Continued and or concluded...


	3. Chapter 3

0o0

Ten minutes after he was certain they had all vacated his living room, Nate emerged with the glass and bottle still in his hands, he headed straight for the kitchen. Once there he poured what remained of his drink in the glass down the drain before quickly disposing of the bottle's contents. He had had every intention of drinking himself into a stupor that night, had started to, but stopped when he remembered Sophie's eyes, and the hurt he had seen in them. She had clearly been angry with him too but there was no denying the hurt he had seen there. The night passed tortuously slow, the hours feeling like years as Nate wrestled with the memories of his distant past and with the fact he had once again **hurt** Sophie.

It was an hour and a half after sunrise when Sophie let herself into Nate's apartment, where she was shocked to find him sitting on the couch. He was staring off into space but looking him over, he seemed to be in a state far more sober than she had expected to find him. However he didn't seem to have heard her entrance in, so Sophie called out to him, keeping her voice soft as not to startle him. "Nate?" When he didn't respond or even look at her, she gently moved to sit beside him on the couch, and touched his arm. "Nate?"

"Back in the days when I was still an investigator for I.Y.S., there was one assignment I was given I knew would probably keep me away from home in Europe for the better parts the next two weeks. It was Friday when the assignment came down and it was urgent enough I would need to leave the next day. So I went home to get ready for the trip, tell Maggie what had come up with work. She took it fine but Sam was disappointed because this sudden assignment canceled the plans we had made for the weekend."

_Was _I _the reason he had to leave his family, his son that weekend?_ Guilt followed her train of thought which Sophie firmly pushed back out of her mind then she gently prompted him to continue by asking, "What had your plans been for that weekend?"

"To take Sam camping for the first time." For the first time since she came in, Nate looked at Sophie and saw a question in her eyes. "Oh no it wasn't the kind of camping where you sleep in tents and in sleeping bags on the ground. Maggie isn't much of a rough it kind of girl, but she agreed to it after I told her we could rent a cabin to stay in. But we still had planned to do things you'd do while camping like having a fire, roast hot dogs and marshmallows – that sort of thing. I thought I might even try to teach Sam a little about fishing."

"Everything a little boy would find fun and love doing with his dad." Sophie saw the pain in his eyes and she felt the tears that were stinging her own. She didn't understand why he was telling her about this, what this had to do with their own situation. She stopped short however of saying anything that might discourage him from talking to her altogether. After all she knew from very personal, rather frustrating experience that once Nathan Ford clammed up and shut down emotionally, she would be faced with the next to impossible task of getting him to talk start talking with her again.

"So what happened?" she asked, hoping it wasn't the wrong decision.

"Well neither Maggie or I were looking forward to seeing the disappointment on Sam's face and thankfully neither of us had to. Since it was in the middle of summer, Maggie actually suggested we camp out in the backyard instead, all three of us. Sam was still a little disappointed we wouldn't be camping all weekend like we had planned but he still loved it. We found a way of doing the backyard version of everything we had planned to do at the cabin, except the fishing, and Maggie even agreed to sleep outside with her boys." Nate's eyes still had pain in them but now there was also a genuine happiness at the memories. "Sam fell asleep watching the stars."

Sophie smiled. "That's a wonderful memory."

"Yes it is, one of the most precious I have with my son." Nate sighed. "Sophie, when I think of Sam and how much I loved him, it scares me. I've never loved anyone like I loved him and when he died, well so much of me died with him. The best part of me in fact and I'm not sure I could ever have it in me to be the father I was to him with another child. I don't even know I have it in me to overcome the fear of something happening them so I can fully love them in the way they deserve to be loved."

Sophie was quiet for several moments after he finished speaking, struggling to find the words to say to him, and to keep from crying anymore than she already was. She had always known how deeply Nate had loved his son because of his agony had ran just as deeply in after Sam's death. But to hear him actually put those feelings into words had cause her to be at a loss for words.

"Nate," she began when she finally did find what she hoped was the right words. "I'm scared too, more scared than I've ever been in my life. I never saw myself ever being a mother, and I don't know what sort of a mother I will be and to be honest I've always thought I was too selfish for motherhood. But even though this wasn't what I planned to have happen, I want to do this, even if it scares me half to death. I will do this even if I have to do it alone, without you. But I hope I won't come to that because our son..." She heard him take a sharp breath at that word but she kept going, "... _or_ daughter deserves to grow up with their father, and I know you've got it in you somewhere to be the father again that you were to Sam."

"I don't know, Soph, I just don't know if I have the strength."

Silence fell over the room as his words sank in, Sophie unsure how to answer him. But then she reached out, took his hand in her own. "Nate, you have one of two choices to make here. If you choose the first one, then you'll allow your fear to rob you of a very precious chance to hold and love your child, and be loved by that child. Or you can still feel the fear you're feeling but not let it rob you of loving your child and being a part of their life."

She put a hand on his cheek, and gently turned his face so he was looking at her. "I know all you can think about right now is the pain you've been feeling since Sam died, but I hope you can also remember the great love you felt for him. I know that if you love this child, you're taking a huge risk that one day in the future your heart will be broken again, and there's no way we can know if the future will hold good or bad. But whichever it holds, isn't loving your child worth the risk of having your heart broken again?"

He nodded."I can't promise anything more beyond one day at a time."

"Then we'll take this one day at a time."

**FIN**... for now


End file.
